Ferry trips from St. Johns
 

We will be staying in St Johns. To explore other islands are we on our own, meaning taking ferry than renting cars taking taxis on each island or is there a tour company that takes you to Tortola, Virgin Gorda, JVD etc and takes you around to sites? Whats the travel time between each Island. Thanks for any information.

Mo: First and foremost, it's St. John USVI. St. John's is on a totally different archipelago. It's okay, everyone mixes the two up in the beginning. Anyway, there are lots of boat operators who will take you out to various other islands. One of the ones folks seem to love is the New Horizons II which hits four different islands in the BVI's in one day trip. The islands are about 30 minutes (Tortola) to 1.5 hours (Virgin Gorda) from St. John. I would recommend you let someone else do the driving such as New Horizons II and take you to places on one boat. It'll run you about $100-150 pp (may be some miscellaneous things such as customs and lunch costs dependent on the trip operator) for one of these day trips but it is wonderful and worth it in my opinion. They take care of customs, the transportation, getting you from one place to another, information about where you're visiting, etc. And, of course, almost all of the operators offer you unlimited beverages non and alcoholic throughout the trip. Very nice amenity indeed.

Thanks Tuxedocat. I can't believe I added that extra s. Ever since an airline rep. was giving me fares for St. John VA I've been trying to be very careful not to add an extra s to the one in USVI. Thanks for your info.The New Horizons ll that you mention, does it give adequate time at each island? Off the subject. Your name, just curious do you love black and white cats, or do you just like dressing up. Thanks again and have a nice day.

Mo: Don't sweat the the "s" My father-in-law is so off course he thinks it's the one in Newfoundland. New Horizons II is a bit on the fast track. Not necessarily in this sequence, you go to Virgin Gorda and visit the Baths for about an hour. You go to Jost Van Dyke for about about an hour and a half. You stop at one of the smaller islands, usually Guana Island for a quick snorkel about 45 minutes or so, and a nice lunch stop at another island, usually Marina Cay. The stops are not too long but you need time to travel between the islands too (30mins. - 1.5 hrs. depending which islands), so this makes it possible to visit two of the big attractions, Virgin Gorda and Jost Van Dyke in one day trip. There are less ambitious programs like Jost Van Dyke with one other snorkel stop, or Virgin Gorda with one other snorkel stop, but I've found that you don't get that much more time at each stop. Look up New Horizons II's website. Sorry, I don't know it offhand. And, it's yes to both. I love black and white cats, and I like to dress up too.

You can find more info about New Horizon's II on the bookitvi.com website. We went on NH II in March. I think it a great trip for first timers (we were) to get a general overview of the BVI's. I would recommend doing it earlier on in your trip, that way you will have an idea if you want to explore any of the islands further, or just spend your time on STJ. We happened to decide to go back to Jost Van Dyke for the day, so took the ferry. Like tuxedocat mentioned, some of the less ambitious trips still don't necessarily allow more time on island. More time is spent sailing while NH II is a fast boat. It took approx 1 hour to Virgin Gorda. That was the first stop, so we arrived before the cruise shippers.

Thanks all for your information. I'm really getting excited about going. Book-it sounds more of what we were looking for, more than one island; however I do like Shoretrips tour of the island,Virgin Gorda, not just taking in the beach. Does anyone know of any other tour companies that tour the actual island (More than 1) as well as gives you beach time? Thanks

EJ,

This is the thread that has all of the deletions.

Or should I say this is the one that has been *sanitized*....when I really thought it was quite civil.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......

Marion

Ahh, yes. I remember it now. Thanks for topping it, Marion. You're right--it was quite civilized and chock full of emoticons. If they can't keep the tone light, what can? ;)

How rude! not only was more of my question edited out but my thank you to all for the info.was too. Here goes with the question again. Although the New Horizons ship with bookitvi sounds great it sounds as though the island themselves aren't explored its just water/beach. The other suggestion, shoretrips toured Virgin Gorda as well as let you snorkle around the baths but thats just one island. Does anyone know of any other companies that might tour the islands both land and sea. Thanks again. Hopefully I won't be deleted this time around.

I have been to Virgin Gorda twice with two different operators. The first was with a large group on a large boat (whose name escapes me right now) operating out of the Westin. More importantly, that trip took you out to Spanish Town in Virgin Gorda where we disembarked, had about 20 minutes to walk around in the port area, and then took taxis out to the Baths (about 20 minutes away). At the Baths, we stayed for approximately 1.5 hours and took a short break at the restaurant at the top. Then it was back on the taxis back to Spanish Town and back on the boat for a late lunch. We also stopped at Norman Island and snorkeled the "treasure" caves. The second trip was on Stormy Petrol, a much smaller boat with about 8 people total. We went straight to the Baths and swam to shore from the boat. Stayed about 1.5 hours and then back to the boat and out to Marina Cay for lunch at Pusser's and then stopped at Peter Island for a snorkel in White Bay. The main differences between the two was the size of the boat and amount of people. I don't know what other operators might do, but I suspect many of them have limited time on any given island. There are ferries to Tortola, Virgin Gorda, JVD, St. Thomas and will allow you at least a few hours to explore the island on your own. I am sure there must be some tour operators as well, particularly for Tortola, who have organized tours of the island. I'll keep my eyes open for any other such operators.

Ejcrowe: You missed all the hot action. I thought it was both controversial and humorous. I got sensored for the first time, and I thought I was being so eloquent too. :) Oh well. Sometimes the baby does get thrown out with the bath water, but at least that bath water is gone. We can now just pick up to baby and move on.

Tux: Heh! I'm sorry I missed out on the flurry of messages. The last thing I posted was my preference for direct links in the posts and that the folks under attack, i.e. you, Marion, and brenandg, were among my most trusted advisors on this board.

Mo, I hope you have a great time on St. John and find the daytrip that is perfect for you. If you need to eliminate one of the BVI from your itinerary, I'd suggest it be Tortola. VG and JVD have a mysticism all their own. Tortola is very nice, but based on what I've read about St. John, it's the most similar of the BVI and won't offer you anything with a wow factor compared to the others.

Thanks for everyones input. Ejcrow thanks for adding that Tortola is the one to miss, its the closest so I guess we'll do it on our own. I still don't understand why the editing of some of the posts. I'm only glad I had copied the other tour companies name before it was deleted. Last week at this time we had no idea where to go, Mexico, South AMerica, Caribbean etc. open to anything at that point. Started reading the Fodors books on all last saturday narrowed our choices that afternoon and booked our trip Sunday for the end of October and that was before I even came came to you all on travel talk. Reading everything now about St. John I'm sure we made the right choice. It was a speedy decision but I am soooooo excited.